Five candidates are running in the race. The two main candidates are incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbaev and Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, head of the pro-democracy opposition For a Just Kazakhstan bloc.

Nazarbaev has been ruling this vast, sparsely populated and oil-rich country since Soviet times. He has been elected president twice and once extended his term through a referendum. All of those elections were criticized as undemocratic. One of the elections was unexpectedly held two years early.

Kazakhstan's presidential election is scheduled for 4 December. Election campaigning is expected to end a few days before voters go to the polls.